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unprescribed, free-flowing definition
of healthy human experience, with
limitless possibilities. Humans are
not traveling a road where the
destination is to become “adjusted”
or “actualized,” as fellow humanistic
psychologist Abraham Maslow
had suggested. Indeed, the purpose
of existence is not about reaching
any kind of destination, Rogers
claims, because existence is less
a journey toward an endpoint
and more an ongoing process of
growth and discovery that does
not stop until we die.
Living “the good life”
Rogers uses the phrase living
“the good life,” to refer to the range
of characteristics, attitudes, and
behaviors displayed by people who
have embraced the foundations of
his approach—people who are
“fully in the stream of life.” One
essential ingredient is the ability to
stay wholly present in the moment.
Since self and personality emerge
out of experience, it is of the utmost
importance to stay fully open to
the possibilities offered by each
moment, and to let experience
shape the self. The individual
lives in an environment of constant
change, yet frequently and all too
easily, people deny this fluidity
and instead create constructs of
how they think things should be.
They then try to mold themselves
and their idea of reality to fit the
constructs they have made. This
way of being is the very opposite
of the fluid, flowing, and changing
organization of self that Rogers
believes the nature of our
existence requires.
Our preconceptions about
how the world is, or should be,
and our own role within it, defineSee also: Fritz Perls 112–17 ■ Erich Fromm 124–29 ■ Abraham Maslow 138–39 ■ Rollo May 141 ■ Dorothy Rowe 154 ■
Martin Seligman 200–01
PSYCHOTHERAPY
Unlike a maze with only one route across, Rogers
asserts that life is full of possibilities and offers multiple
routes—but individuals are often unable or unwilling
to see them. To experience “the good life” we need
to stay flexible and open to what life brings, by
experiencing it fully moment by moment.
the limits of our world and reduce
our ability to stay present and open
to experience. In living the good
life and remaining open to
experience, Rogers believes we
adopt a way of being that prevents
us feeling trapped and stuck. The
aim, as Rogers sees it, is for ❯❯What I will be in the next
moment, and what I will do,
grows out of the moment,
and cannot be predicted.
Carl Rogers